thuringian forest greens.
on a very wonderful autumn day, filled to the brim with the most heart-soothing sunlight, we made our way to the thuringian forest, to the woods north of the city of oberhof, usually well-known as a winter destination in our family. our walk led us through the 'silbergrund' - an idyllic valley through which two tributary waters channel their way into the ohra dam. this valley has many charms - steep & looming rock formations, a transfer tunnel that leads the water of the gera river into the dam and of course the nature itself, which was my personal highlight, as everything was tinted in golden light, creating a dreamy mountain landscape in the high season of fall.
throughout this post i will include some excerpts from autumnal poems by various poets - i thought it would be a nice accompaniment to declare my love for this special season again :) i translated them without following the rhyming rules - which is so difficult to do anyway from one language to another. what is important is the meaning behind the poems after all, right? and even non-rhyming poems can be beautiful.
little rivulet hiding underneath long wisps of grass.
roots.
autumnal sunny days
blessed to me to my delight,
my breathing chest greets you
with a more gentle beat.
oh, how the hour dispenses
in a blissful tranquility.
every aching wound
quietly seals itself.
only to rest, to love,
quietly improving oneself,
the soul feels driven
to watch with love
and so i pace through the valley,
through the mountains, along the brook,
after every blessful,
every consuming beam.
every gentle change of colour.
i listen with great endeavour to
every growth and every death,
every wilting and blooming.
blissfully learning to sense
how in creation
spirit and world touch each other
and generate harmonic sound.
that which is weaving a ring,
that which is blooming in the meadows,
is an allegory of eternal things
to the one who looks.
every sprouting plant,
which fills itself up with perfume,
carries in its calyx
the whole world's veiled mysteries.
emanuel geibel . excerpt from herbstlich sonnige tage
( click for the german version )
honey fungi spreading out on an old tree trunk.
they are edible, but need to be cooked for at least 10 minutes.
my dad examining the honey fungi thoroughly. i loved the sunny spot he stood in ❤!
on the look-out for more.
the mossy soil of the thuringian forest is so characteristic for this mountain range.
nearing the triefstein - an impressive rock formation in the silbergrund valley.
this tree spoke to me in whispers. it spoke of the centuries it needed to grow so big and to unfurl its roots so protrudingly. it spoke of noticing all the people passing it by to reach the silbergrund and the triefstein cliff. it spoke of stormy days, of golden days, of days full of rain, so it could continue to grow. its strength and height, its gorgeous roots, ingrained into the earth against all odds, with even tinier, more invisible roots able to provide the energy it needed to exist. it all made quite an impact on me. i love trees the most when i can see their roots showing, to me it feels like they are truthful because of that. it sound stupid, i know, a tree being truthful, but when your roots are showing, when you are not able to hide them anymore, isn't that about the truth? your true self coming out of the woodworks? and then, when you are able to see the beauty in its roots, in your roots, in the roots of others and are able to accept it all as it is, isn't that such a beautiful and veracious thing?
the painter khalil gibran said: trees are poems the earth writes into the sky. he also added that we turn them into paper, so we can record our emptiness. a universal truth.
my dad passing by the triefstein cliff. it is a truly humbling rock formation, probably of volcanic origins. the thuringian forest was formed between the cretaceous and tertiary era in a tectonic process of ground heaving and sometimes even volcanic activities. i don't know in detail which kind of rock the triefstein consists of, but i am guessing it is a mixture of rhyolite and tuff and maybe even shale. most of the thuringian forest is based on lower rotliegend rock strata, which mainly consists of sandstone layers, but is also known for volcanic rocks being part of its integral matter.
the entrance into the silbergrund.
admiring the stark contrast between triefstein rock and light-flooded silbergrund valley.
walking around the corner, this gorgeous view opened up in front of us, switching on a myriad of imagined heart-eyes in my brain 😍 on the left is the silbergraben river, which is fed with water from the much smaller eimersbach creek coming from oberhof and two more rivers, the wilde and the zahme gera, which provide their waters through a passage through the mountains on a length of about 10 kilometers and emerge out of the triefstein rock at exactly this spot! can you see the water spill out into the river?
golden from the fir branches
the light drips.
on the grey,
moss braided rock pulpit,
where we rest listening in meditation,
appear, as if done by magic hands,
painted strips of bronze,
astonishing.
crimson cobwebs dangled,
glistening meshes,
from branches wattled with white lichen,
and in golden green dreams
webs the descenting,
busily miracle creating
artist sun,
a wooden mystic soul.
marvel, marvel!
dusk treads
golden crowned,
slowly through the forest silence,
murmuring fables towards us:
gloriously her haze glistens and scintillates.
karl henckell . aus dem thüringer wald, pt. 16, from the poetry collection of 'gipfel und gründe' ( 1901 - 1904 )
( german version )
the water transfer tunnel was built from 1977 to 1981. there was a lot of water splashing out of this outlet, creating a tiny, but forceful waterfall.
the level meter for the community of luisenthal. i guess you have to really bring yourself to safety when the waters in the silbergrund reach 10 meters ( or it's just the 10th level meter of the community)? the ohra dam is only a few hundred meters away, and it is one of the biggest in the thuringian forest, which is an additional factor when it comes to possible floodings. fact is, nobody really wants to be inside the silbergrund valley if the dam breaks 😂
triefstein rock and gerastollen ( the transfer tunnel i spoke about earlier ). here you can see a wide array of rocks, even the red rotliegend ( which literally translates into underlying red ).
loved the farns growing by the creek 💛
silbergraben river making its way to the upstream temporary dam silbergrund.
oh, the light, it was simply gorgeous!
you know i love me some strangely growing trees!
it roisters the light in the top of your tree
and turns all things colourful and pavonine,
they can only find you when the day died away.
the gloaming, the caress of the space,
places thousand hands over thousand crowns,
and below them the unknown becomes pious.
you don't want to hold the world differently to yourself
than like this, with this softest gesture.
out of her skies you grasp the earth
and feel her underneath your cloak's creases.
you have such a gentle way to be.
and those, that dedicate the loudest names to you
soon are forgotten in your vicinity.
from your hands, mountainously lifting,
rises, to give our senses ordinance,
with dark front your silent force.
rainer maria rilke . es lärmt das licht im wipfel deines baumes ( from the collection 'das buch des mönchischen lebens, 1899 )
( german version )
another rock formation is this one - the minckwitz-felsen. it is named and dedicated to one of oberhof's most deserved forest officials, hermann von minckwitz. he worked in this part of the forest for over 60 years and must have been quite popular amongst his peers and co-workers to warrant such an honour ( this remembrance plaque ).
the top of the rock.
stars inside inside wood. i don't know much about the wood chopping business, but these patterns are really interesting. i couldn't find out anything about how they form or what causes it, a little miracle! i wish i knew a forester or someone who's deep into the matter. even my dad, who has a motor saw certificate and helps chopping down trees, couldn't tell me what these are.
forgotten bridge over the silbergraben.
standing on mossy grounds with fallen leaves ❤
nature, how lovely in every dress!
lovely even in a dying dress!
she mixes into melancholy mellow glee,
and smiles shedding tears while she leaves.
you, withering foliage, showering down,
you, little flower, whispering: do not mourn!
we will be revived more beautifully!
johann heinrich voß . excerpt from 'der herbstgang' ( 1794 )
( german version )
in some places, the sun was not able to reach into the shadows.
i love this picture of my parents on this path, both in thought and observing what is around them. i think, my dad was identifying a mushroom, while my mom tried to make out some ;)
wild mountain rivers, y'all, they never get old.
where the sun was not able to dry the grounds, you could find moistened and wettened meadows... and withering leaves dotted with water drops!
man's soul
equals water:
from the sky it descends,
to the sky it ascends
and down again
towards earth it is bound.
alternating in perpetuity.
johann wolfgang von goethe ( free translation from an excerpt of 'gesang der geister über den wassern', 1779 )
autumn at its finest, golden leaves falling, crunching underneath the soles of your shoes.
the silbergrund valley was so incredibly charming!
what else could you call this, than aureate delight?
it was a small valley, but it ensorcelled infinitely.
nature creates the most wonderful natural sculptures!
i want to go over the mountains in solitude,
and nobody shall know of my ways;
for who has seen the path of my elevation
from my elevation would have dragged me down.
i want to go over the mountains in solitude,
my song shall fade away unheard against the rocks,
and my lament shall be scattered by the wind;
only who can sing to the own heart is able to sing;
only who can lament to the own heart is able to lament;
only who can perceive their own heart is able to see.
onto myself! i want to renounce the world
and want to go over the mountains in solitude.
erich mühsam . ich will alleine... ( from the collection 'der krater', 1904 - 1908 )
( german version )
silbergraben creek bubbling down the mountains.
the junction of the two rivulets eimersbach and silbergraben. i feel that mountain rivers are quite romantic :)
across all the grandeur,
the sun pours a sea of love,
from the nearby, from the distance,
sunbeams gleaming towards me.
may i still, molten away into air,
undulate in the wide universe,
completely interweaved into sunlight,
floating above mountain and valley.
gottfried keller . excerpt from 'auf dem berge'
( german version )
gleaming leaves, illuminated by sunshine 💛
i couldn't get enough of this play of colours and light!
a wonderful promenade shielded by coniferous woods and graced with maple trees.
the little eimersbach embedded in an autumnal scenery.
we neared the city boundaries of oberhof.
making out the distinct building of the panorama hotel, a really cool GDR structure.
the hotel is supposed to look like two ski jumps, since oberhof is well-known for this winter sport activity. it was planned by yugoslav architect krešimir martinković and built by the collective komgrap from 1967 to 1969. it was opened on 7th october 1969, 21 years prior to when i was born! i have always loved the looming triangular shape of this hotel, always been fascinated by it since my childhood. even though we have never spent time inside the hotel, it was always part of our winterly visits in oberhof, like a massive guardian over the people visiting the city.
a more detailled shot of the roof situation.
the hotel is still used as such and seems to have kept up with the times quite well!
the wadebergschanze, a ski jump with 70 m hillsize. it's basically a jump of medium size, mainly used by junior ski jumpers. it can be utilized in winter, as well as in summer times. this particular jump was built in 2018, after the pre-existing wooden jump ( built in 1951 ) was dismantled due to safety issues.
the transition from forest to city is rather subtle in oberhof, which i like.
rocky outcrops present themselves from time to time, giving you a glimpse into the geological fabric underneath the town. this is the typical structure of schist rock!
you can glimpse a bit of the multiplex center 'oberer hof' in the back, which is also a GDR building that still is of great importance today, as it houses a little aquarium and amphibian zoo, several restaurants and some shopping opportunities. on one outer wall of the building there's also a huge climbing wall ( you can actually see parts of that wall )! i haven't yet found my way to document this building, but i am sure i will eventually do that at some point ;)
in the front, there's a totally overgrown little pond ( that's actually a meadow of green water, y'all 😂 ). it kinda fascinated me, because it looked so much like a lawn.
directly next to the pond, a sculpture of 3 hand-holding figurines. they all surround a tree growing in their midst. even though i could not find any infos on the creator of this sculpture, i found a title: 'the day of the tree'. apparently, it's supposed to tell people to protect and preserve the trees around us and respect nature by not littering, not destroying and not ignoring. which of course is a very honourable thing to teach us, and very important. i wonder what this sculpture looks like in 50 years! maybe the tree will have filled out the vaccuum inbetween and the figures will hug it? i certainly hope so!
another picture of the same sculpture.
the kurti-hoffmann-brücke, a bridge named after an entrepreneurial character of the city, who helped advance and promote the local bobsleigh & skeleton sports club! in the back, another tidbit of 'oberer hof'.
it was time to return to our starting point again, and along the way, we passed by the wadebergschanze, which is quite an interesting construction on its own!
its inrun tower protrudes 22,8 meters above the earth and extends over a promenade.
what had been made out of wood for the longest time, now is made out of steel. the whole length of the inrun amounts to 82,3 meters, and the jumpers can fly up to over 70 meters wide!
a random and kinda creepy find, this dirty duckling! you know i love me some macabre finds 😂
long shadows in autumnal woods. i love to indulge in all these colours 😍
oh, what would the world be without the fly agaric's wonderful red hats and the white dots strewn all over it?
experiences you collect like mushrooms,
individually and with a feeling
that the thing is sort of untrustworthy.
also lovin' the autumnal dress of bilberry bushes!
these mushrooms camouflaged perfectly as leaves! these are probably buttery collybia, which are viewed as edible, but seem to be rather boring in taste. in addition to that, there are way too many look-alikes for me, so these always stay were they are when i find them!
a real looker, this cinnabar polypore 😍
in the last few moments of this gorgeous day my main focus was mostly on mushrooms and capturing the colourful ones, it seems 😂 these are golden spindles, i think.
... but also just the colours and structures of an autumnal setting. you know, for me personally, the evening light illuminating golden moments like this, is purely magic. those moments wrap my mind into a soft, comforting blanket, always.
this little tree guy waved us good-bye as we finally made it to our parking lot and while i don't approve of trees being spray-painted, i still kinda liked the fantasy that created this! it takes an attentive eye to see a little tree creature in this strangely growing plant.
to end this ode to autumn, a last poem by karl henckell:
what is happiness? an alternation in self-location,
perennially returning to self-losing,
towards the center, where forces bond
which cryptically criss-cross themselves in exchange.
how does sensation incessantly transform
the world inside! at times heavily storming,
at times like fanfares of golden light. vanishing
and arriving is like the ebbing and flooding of the sea.
before i understood its great unsteadiness,
i had to be taken ill by doubting myself,
until i learned the graceful power of equilibrium.
i discovered, a wanderer through far districts,
the stronghold wartburg*, which i deeply trust,
the secure tower of my own nature.
( from the collection of 'gipfel & gründe', german version )
*wartburg: the most famous castle of thuringia is located in the thuringian forest as well, albeit in a different part.
stay curious, until next time!
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